


Prophecies and Paths

by LoreWren



Category: Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Genre: Choices, Destiny, Gen, Prophecy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-28 19:40:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/311480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoreWren/pseuds/LoreWren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So which is it, then - Screw Destiny or follow it to the letter?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Prophecies and Paths

Alice noticed that she'd been treating Wonderland's prophecy like her marriage 'proposal' at home. Someone had decided for her—and here it wasn't even a person, it was a nebulous concept.

She wasn't sure if that made it better or worse, actually.

Once she realized that…well. Both were destinies that she'd decided she did not want. The choice in both cases seemed simple enough. Ignore it all. Run away. Pretend hard enough, stay sane enough, and they'll see the madness themselves and find someone better suited.

 _"You're not hardly Alice," the caterpillar said._

Alice could be her mother's Alice, that man's Alice, and marry and live reasonably ever after. She could be Wonderland's Alice, the prophecy's Alice, and go out to fight the Jabberwock. She could be her father's mad, impossible Alice and…that was a nebulous concept again; all her father really wanted was for her to follow her own dreams.

 _Which Alice am I?_

She had the ability to be any, she realized with a bit of a start. And perhaps that was all the prophecy was. _This is a path; this is where it will lead you._ Less of a granite corridor, more of a map. If Alice fights the Jabberwock with the vorpal sword today, then she will slay it. If Alice marries the man back in her own world, she will live the life her mother has planned for her—which was just another prophecy, really.

Or she could stop thinking of the story-paths laid out and figure out what she wanted.

Alice smiles. That's not quite what either of her parents would say, but she feels it takes the better parts of both philosophies.

 _Well_ , she thought, for she still spoke to herself, if only in her head, _I certainly don't want to marry Hamish, so that's one world figured out. And I can't very well leave all these people with the Red Queen. That's not the Alice I want to be either._

 _I want to be mad, impossible Alice, and that means fighting for what I want._

Alice walks back to don her armor. There is a helmet, though no one looks like they want her to take it. Alice doesn't want to put it on herself, and it takes her a moment to realize she's trying to look like the warrior from their illustrated prophecy, blond hair free and flowing.

She taps it twice, then tries it on.

The helmet doesn't fit. It cuts off her peripheral vision, is so heavy it puts her off-balance, and is generally a hindrance not worth the minimal protection such a thing would provide from the Jabberwock's jaws.

She takes it back off and shakes her hair out. No prophecy will determine her life, neither because she follows it blindly nor because she forces herself to subvert it. She's off to fight the Jabberwock, not play along with something or rebel for the fun of it.

She strides out to face the fate she chose.

**Author's Note:**

> Full passage that inspired this: The Arranged Marriage plot at the beginning of the film sets up the aesop that forcing someone to walk lock-step with social expectations crushes a person's individuality and happiness. Then Alice goes to Underland where she is told that she must slay the Jabberwock Because Destiny Says So ... and she does, even though there are obvious parallels between this destiny and the one back in England. She then goes back home, breaks away from her engagement and starts her own career. So which is it, then - Screw Destiny or follow it to the letter?
> 
> She didn't fight the Jabberwock Because Destiny Says So. She fought the Jabberwock because she became the Determinator.


End file.
